: In testimony on Capitol Hill last Thursday, the AMA stuck to its guns on the liability issue. ``It simply isn't fair: to grant a shield of immunity to health plans--a shield not given to any other person or business entity,'' AMA: Trustee Dr. Donald J. Palmisano told the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee.

: Based on the heated exchange that took place among members of that subcommittee, an imminent: resolution of the 6-year-old debate seems unlikely.

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There is a larger question that has been looming for a great many years and finally needs addressing:

While insurance companies seek to protect their interest with all manner of inventive advertising at the expense of policyholders' interest, why should that advertising cost be paid from policyholders' premiums and not from the insurance companies' own coffers?